confession
Owning your wrongdoing
A confession is an admission of something concealed—typically wrongdoing, guilt, or an uncomfortable truth.
In religious contexts, confession is the formal acknowledgment of sins to a priest: She went to confession every Saturday.
Police seek confessions from suspects.
More casually, confession introduces personal revelations: I have a confession—I've never seen that movie.
The word implies disclosure of something the speaker might prefer to hide.
Formal clearing of guilt
- penanceSelf-mortification for wrongdoing
- priestOne who performs sacraments
- sinViolation of divine law
- forgivenessReleasing resentment toward offenders
sacrament · penitent · contrition · reconciliation · mass · church · rosary · hail mary
Moral self-reproach
- remorseGuilt for wrongdoing
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- acknowledgmentConfirmation of receipt
- culpabilityDeserving blame for wrongdoing
owning up · self-accusation · incrimination · mea culpa · coming clean · truth · honesty · accountability
Surprising disclosed truth
- secretConcealed information
- testimonySworn statement as evidence
- unburdeningRelieving oneself of weight
- divulgenceAct of making known
admission · tell-all · expose · leak · truth · statement · declaration · unmasking
Purification through emotional expression
- unburdeningRelieving oneself of weight
- reliefEasing of distress
- vulnerabilityOpenness to harm
- intimacyEmotional closeness between people
trust · healing · closure · release · journal · diary · heart-to-heart · outpouring
Written personal recollection
- autobiographySelf-penned life narrative
- AugustineFourth-century church father
- RousseauFrench surname, philosopher or painter
- true crimeGenre covering actual offenses
tell-all · diary · narrative · first-person · personal essay · testimony · self-revelation · Sylvia Plath
absolution
Formal clearing of guilt
forgiveness · sacrament · penitent · contrition · reconciliation · mass · church · rosary · hail mary · grace
guilt
Moral self-reproach
- remorseGuilt for wrongdoing
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- acknowledgmentConfirmation of receipt
owning up · culpability · self-accusation · incrimination · mea culpa · coming clean · truth · honesty · accountability · responsibility
revelation
Surprising disclosed truth
- secretConcealed information
- testimonySworn statement as evidence
- unburdeningRelieving oneself of weight
divulgence · admission · tell-all · expose · leak · truth · statement · declaration · unmasking · transparency
catharsis
Purification through emotional expression
- unburdeningRelieving oneself of weight
- reliefEasing of distress
- vulnerabilityOpenness to harm
intimacy · trust · healing · closure · release · journal · diary · heart-to-heart · outpouring · therapeutic
memoir
Written personal recollection
- autobiographySelf-penned life narrative
- AugustineFourth-century church father
- RousseauFrench surname, philosopher or painter
true crime · tell-all · diary · narrative · first-person · personal essay · testimony · self-revelation · Sylvia Plath
interrogation
Formal, probing examination
evidence · testimony · prosecution · suspect · Miranda · recording · duress · voluntary · signed · affidavit
- biographiesbiography, biographies, autobiography, autobiographies, memoir
- CatholicismVatican, cardinals, pope, Holy Communion, popes
- crime investigationdetective, whodunit, investigation, detectives, investigator
- mysteryclue, detective, suspect, clues, sleuth
- courtroom dramaobjection, surprise witness, hostile witness, mistrial, closing argument
- disclosurerevealing, disclosing, disclosure, disclose, divulge
confessiondenial
Refusal to accept reality
disavowal · repudiation · not guilty plea · recantation · renunciation
confessionconcealment
Act of hiding something
cover-up · secret · suppression · secrecy · cover
confessionapostasy
Renunciation of former beliefs
abjuration · heresy · defection · excommunication · backsliding
- confession of faithDoctrinal belief statement
- deathbed confessionDisclosure made while dying
- confession boothEnclosed space for admitting sins
- false confessionUntrue guilt statement
- true confessions
- forced confessionStatement extracted under pressure